34 The Story of The Bronx 



to interfere with their property and business. The despotic 

 Stuyvesant finally gave way and a Council of Nine was formed 

 in 1649, of which Van der Donck was a member. He returned 

 to Holland as the agent of those opposed to the governor; 

 and the fact that he had been imprisoned by Stuyvesant for 

 contumacious conduct gave additional weight to his feeling 

 against the governor. Stuyvesant's friends in Holland were 

 too strong for Van der Donck, however, and he became an 

 object of suspicion to the authorities, who kept him under 

 surveillance. Upon his attempting to return to the colony he 

 was stopped, even after his family and property were aboard 

 the vessel. His detention lasted until 1653. He wrote a his- 

 tory of New Netherland, but the part relating to the govern- 

 ment was suppressed. In 1652, the University of Leyden 

 conferred upon him the degree of " Doctor of Civil and Canon 

 Law"; and the same year he received his patent for his pa- 

 troonship from the States-General itself, the highest authority 

 in Holland ; the grant had been made in 1646. The delay of six 

 years may have been caused either by his strenuous remon- 

 strances against the governor, by which Van der Donck be- 

 came persona non grata, or by some difficulty in obtaining 

 deeds from the Weckquaesgeeks and Manhattans, who had 

 several villages on his tract. 



Van der Donck came back to New Amsterdam in 1653, 

 having first requested permission from the Company to 

 practise his profession as a lawyer; but so distrustful were they 

 of his ability to make trouble that they refused, except that 

 "he might give his opinion if asked." He once more returned 

 to Holland, and then came back to New Amsterdam, where he 

 died in 1655. 



He probably never lived upon his land; though that he 

 intended to do so is shown by his purchase from the Indians 



